This is the end. The END.
13. We miss not being able to understand everything. The mystery in language is gone. It was blissfull not knowing what everyone was saying.
Just a quick update ~ we are home in California after our 3 week excursion. I have a lot of blogging and catching up to do about our adventures and will try to get it done in the next few weeks. For now, we are recovering from jetlag and looking forward to resettling our lives here. It's been a great year and I am definitely compiling the lists to create and "end all be all" post to wrap this expat blog up.
Read more...All good things must come to an end. Here are the last beers we had the pleasure of trying in Geneva. Don't fret, the beer adventures are continuing, just not in Switzerland!
We discovered this little place just a little too late in our adventure . . . or just in time for our cholesterol levels. Right around the corner from our Geneva apartment is a place that served "Gambas-a-go-go", meaning all you can eat shrimp!!! Yummy! It is a little pricet at 39 CHF per person but it is all you can eat. A salad and fries are included, but the real star is the huge shrimp cooked perfectly in a garlic butter sauce. It's impossible to eat these things without getting your fingers a mess, but the taste is so worth it. It's quite funny to see Europeans who hardly ever eat with their hands dig in and get messy. We ate here our last night in Geneva and took J&C back when they dropped us off after our 2 weeks together. It's a lot of shrimp! And you can keep asking for more!
I can't believe it actually happened. I never thought the time would fly by so fast. I can remember the days when I wish it was going faster! We have spent 10 months here and are ready to go home! We moved out of our apartment and stored all of our stuff in a friend's cave. We are now traveling like regular people and living out of a suitcase and hotels. No more "home" base to go back to. We are ending our time in Europe with 3 weeks of traveling. The first two we spent with John & Christina and the 3rd is starting tomorrow in Marrakech, Morocco. We are landing back in San Francisco on Friday! Coming home means facing reality and job searching. but we are ready and excited to do it!
Here are some pictures from our last nights in Geneva and the start of the big festival around the lake, "Fetes De Geneve". I'll try to get some pictures up from places we visited in the last couple weeks . . . like Pompeii, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, and Provence!
Logging on to facebook yesterday morning I was shocked to see my old fraternity brothers updating their status messages with "RIP Danny". What in the world has happened? More details were revealed slowly and I found myself glued to the computer to try to find out more. Danny died in a car crash off the 405 at 2:30 AM. What a tradgedy.
I met Danny freshman year in the dorms and he was always so kind to everyone there. He worked at the front desk and I dated his roommate. He decorated his dorm room with huge pictures of Shakira and Janet Jackson. Our friendship grew as I became a brother of APX the next year. He was always the life of the party. Dancing, singing, and mixing drinks for everyone. He was always the first to show up and help out and was a great listener when you had a gripe that needed to be heard. We became roommates my 4th and 5th year and we always had lots of fun on the trampoline. I will always remember him cooking up plantains and warming corn tortillas.
I'm not sure how I feel. Being here has already put me at a distance from everyone and everything. I'm not connected like I used to be. I feel grief for sure but it reality hasn't sunken in yet. Did it really happen? How is this going to change things? I do know that I got the pleasure of knowing somebody with a warm heart and I will cherish the memories we had together. I just want to hug everyone who is grieving and tell them I understand. I want to share stories of the good times to honor his life. I feel like his life just ended way way way too soon. He never got to experience some of the greatest pleasures in life, and for that I feel terrible.
Now, I don't believe in an afterlife and I think prayers are useless. But whatever helps people be comforted I am all for. I take comfort in knowing that he can never be erased in the history of time. He will always have been there and touched so many hearts.
I realized time was running out in Switzerland and that we would be moving out of Geneva really soon. Keeping this in mind at the Globus market, I picked up these two swiss micro-brews that promised big things but delivered a little flat.
While consuming onion rings at the London Pub "Green Man Porter"we had to have some beer to wash down the greasiness. (This was all Tami's idea btw). London has a rich beer tradition and we wanted to sample some cask ale's while we were at it. A cask ale is - "Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned (includingsecondary fermentation) and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure."
Here's what we did in London in brief bullet points:
- Found our way from Gatwick airport, not via Gatwick Express. Via local trains and a couple tube lines.
- Ate lots of food. Whoever thinks England has bad food, doesn't know what they are talking about. Ate full veggie english breakfasts, red veg vegetarian fast food, wagamama, dim sum, smoothies, bangers & mash, fish & chips, and lots of beer.
- Borough Market and Camden Town Markets.
- Went shopping down Oxford Street.
- Went to two of the oldest pubs in England.
- Saw broadway show Ave Q with last minute tickets! Hung out at Piccadilly Circus to see if we ran into anybody we knew.
- Ran thru the airport, cut thru security (it wasn't easy to convince people!), and hightailed it to the gate.
- Relaxed and enjoyed the hotel room and watching the construction right outside our window.
- Didn't do any sight seeing touristy stuff since we have already done it all there. Rick & Tami did the hop on hop off tour bus thing before we met up with them.
I didn't take a lot of pictures.
There is a huge debate going on back home about health care and how the whole system is running. Here are my simple points I would like to make.
1. The US system IS NOT the best in the world. It is not the best in mortality rates, life spans, and access to doctors. Nay sayers are trying to SCARE you into thinking that you won't get good health care. That is blatantly false.
2. Lots of people are uninsured. Not just the lower class. So when these people get sick, it costs ALL of us.
3. I would much much much rather have a government employee who has nothing to gain from denying me care approving what my doctors do then some insurance company employee who will get a bonus if I don't get my procedure. FOR PROFIT health care simply doesn't work.
4. Health care costs are increasing. It's a reality. We pay 3 times as much for the EXACT same treatments then other people under a national health care plan.
5. A nationalized system would keep costs under check. Competition is key.
6. People get denied health care ALL the time now. Once again, nay-sayers are trying to SCARE you that you won't get a procedure you need under nationalized health care. The reality is, you will denied NOW under the CURRENT system if the insurance company stands to make a buck.
7. There are simply too many loopholes now for insurance companies to deny you coverage. Pre-existing condition anyone? Everyone has one. Ever been to the doctor? They may count it as a possible pre-existing condition. Even if you are granted coverage, if they find out ONE doctor visit you forgot about when filling out the paperwork, they could deny you coverage and claim you lied about preexisting conditions. Does that seem like a system that is working well?
8. If you want to check out some nationalized health care systems of the world, try looking outside Canada and the UK. The Swiss have a great system and so does Taiwan. Don't let another language stop you from informing yourself.
9. Did you realize people are AFRAID of traveling to the US because our health care system is so bad? Silly yes, but the stigma is there. You don't get bad stigma's from having a perfect system.
The whole point is, the system needs to change. And why not now? Don't be scared to work towards the future!
Driving back from Florence was a grueling drive. 6 hours in the car isn't programmed into my "routine" driving anymore like it is in CA. We just went thru the tunnel for the last time this year (tear) and stopped for gas. We treated ourselves and bought this beer at the gas station. Don't worry Mom & Dad, we waited till we got home to drink it. It is always so funny how Europeans drink beer during breaks at rest-stops and that beer and booze is even sold there! Oh well, we were thankful to pick up this gem of a beer. The water in it comes directly from the glacier that is melting off Mont Blanc! Yummy!
The Water is particularly pure, consisting of rainwater and snow-melt transformed into ice and filtered over several hundreds of metres through morainic sand and gravel. The role the water purity plays cannot be underestimated, it allows all the ingredients to come into their own.
The key to successful travel is research research research. The more places you write down where to eat and what to do, the more time you have while actually on vacation to enjoy instead of compromising between McDonald's and a tourist trap with a plastic menu. (Been there, done that). For my recently completely vegetarian inlaw's and long time pescatarian hubby I looked up a place called "Il Vegetariano" in Florence. It was a self serve place that had FABULOUS food! So great, we ate there twice. The mushroom soup and the carrot soups were out of this world and the salad's weren't shabby either. It was nice to see refreshing healthy food in front of us rather then cheese laden greasy pizzas. Here's what we washed down the meal with:
In case there is any interest in the blogosphere about our pursuit to sell our car . . . email me if interested!
Rob's parents have come to visit and we have been running around seeing as much as we can with them. We did a few new things and a few old things but had fun relaxing and enjoying no matter where we were.
The trip started with them landing in Geneva and helping them recover from jetlag. Our advice on jetlag is to stay up till normal bedtime, eat meals even if your not hungry at the appropriate time for your new time zone, and take melatonin to keep you asleep thru the entire night.
Saturday we headed to Chamonix and to take the tele-cabin up to the Mont Blanc viewing station. It is kinda cloudy but the wind didn't stop the tele-cabin from going to the top. It's a little pricey (40 euro) for a round trip, but totally worth it. There is a mid way station on the way up that we stopped at for our packed picnic lunch. It was simply serene. Being above the tree line, watching brave soles ice climb the glaciers with their heavy gear, and me enjoying the cold wind on my bare legs since I foolishly decided to wear shorts! It was warm at the bottom, but chilly at the top.
Did you know that in Switzerland . . . assisted suicide is legal? The swiss has some crazy laws and fines, but they have it right on this one. Don't invade in other's people lives. If they want to end their life, let them. It is nobodies business but the individual.
Here's the NYTimes article about a couple who had to flee to Zurich to end their life together. Rob sent it to me and of course it made me cry. I am not exactly sure why it made me sob like a baby. Maybe it was because it was sweet and sad at the same time? I'm not sure I fully agree with their decisions but I respect that it was their decision to make. There are a lot of complicated issues that come with assisted suicide laws including whether somebody is mentally stable enough to make the decision or not, or does somebody have to be deemed terminally ill to have the right? It may be extremely complicated, but the system the US/UK have in place now (with exception of one state) burdens the life of so many who have a wish to end their existence. Something needs to change. It's an extremely hard topic of conversation but the conversation is but necessary.
One of the commenters on the article said this which I fully agree with, "It's the same people who would shout that the unborn have a right to live that shout that the living have no right to die."
This was kind of a downer post, huh?
More Information & Research . . .
Here's another article from Times Magazine . . .
Another quote on the opposition side - Gordon Brown UK Prime Minister, " I believe that it’s necessary to ensure that there is a never a case in the country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it’s the expected thing to do. That’s why I’ve always opposed legislation for assisted deaths.”
Haven't posted in about a week and a half. Sorry!
I'll catch up soon. Tami & Rick (my inlaw's / Rob's parents) are in town and we have been running all over the place. We have a few days of break from traveling with them and I am going to try to make the best of them. We've been back to the Oberland, Cinque Terre, and Florence with them. On thursday we meet up on London. Right after that we have two weeks to pack up our apartment and then 2.5 more weeks of travel before we are home for good! It's getting hard to believe that our European adventure is coming to a close. It really flew by! Especially since we decided to cut it a couple months short then we originally thought!
Anyway, just wanted to shout (type) a quick hi to the blogosphere out there! Lots of beer tales and travel tales to come this week!
I better catch up with my blogging! Jessica posted her story about visiting Geneva this past weekend and I just have a couple pics to share! Jessica & Jace were fun to hang out with, show around, and super flexible about not finding escargot!
Before they got to the train station, Rob and I spent time out by the sunflower fields that are blooming by CERN. They weren't completely open yet, but was still so amazingly beautiful.
Here's some pics from the weekend!
I have been a bit of a mini pizza kick lately and been trying to incorporate more of the fake meat products I find at the Migros. This recipe uses the fake chicken bits by the company Quorn. I have also been trying to use up our imported products like the BBQ sauce we bought in Manhattan. This recipe is simple and delicious and completely made in the toaster oven and stovetop.
We ate lunch in Lisbon at a vegetarian place in the downtown area called MegaVega. Rob had a beer and it was all organic. Actually, almost everything in that place was organic. I have never eaten so many edible flowers on my salad, but that's another story.
The number of weekend's we have left open in Europe is winding down. This past one we spent in Lisbon, Portugal. We took the low cost carrier Easyjet which offers pretty cheap airfare but with less service and organization then Southwest. There were boarding groups "Easy Boarding", "A", and "B". But there were no lines or signs to indicate where you should stand. A general observation is that most Europeans don't seem to grasp the concept of a queue. Every situation we have been in that it would have been polite to stand in line, people rush in a crowd with no organization and try to take the best of what they can get. It was aggravating to say the least. There are no assigned seats so it was first come first serve.
Once in Portugal, we discovered that our bank back home had shut off our bank cards and there was no hope for reactivation. We literally had 30 euros in our wallets so we spent several hours in the airport after we landed on Skype, the internet, and at Western Union. Rob's dad helped us out and we finally got money for the weekend. The weekend was off to a rough start.
We had read about taxi drivers scamming tourists so we decided to buy a taxi voucher at the information booth at the airport. She warned us it might be 5 euros more then the regular rate of a taxi, but we bought it anyway. We are glad we did since our B&B was hard to find in the Bairro Alto district of town and the driver had to ask a couple of other taxi drivers and locals how to get there. I couldn't imagine trying to explain this to him without the voucher lady at the airport helping us out. We did find out though on our taxi ride back to the airport to leave that we paid almost twice as much then the actual cab far would have been. 10 Euros compared to 20 Euros.
We were very pleasantly surprised at the niceness of the bed and breakfast! It was a 7 room place decorated very modern. It was run by Alex and Vasco and their adopted 8 month old son (from the states!) Edgar. They had 3 sweet dogs running around the place who listened well and were very friendly to pet. The breakfast was the best euro style breakfast I have ever had. The bread was nice and fresh and the preserves were home made. I also think the OJ was fresh squeezed! If you are ever in Lisbon, you have to stay here! Casa De Bairro. They have only been open for 2 months but have skyrocketed to 2nd place in Trip Advisor. Our air conditioning was on the fritz, but we had been warned before we stayed and received a discount rate for putting up with it.
We took it easy in Lisbon and didn't try to run around and see everything we could and just tried to stay cool. It was 36 C most of the weekend so we actively tried to walk on the shaded sides of streets and took many breaks. We saw a lot of sights including the downtown area, the castle, bairro alto, chiado, maritime museum, jeronimos monastery, santa justa elevator, had custard tarts in belem, and drank lots of port at the port wine institute.
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